


Part of a Pair

by Axandrela



Category: DC Extended Universe, DCU (Comics), Shazam! (2019), Shazam! | Captain Marvel (Comics)
Genre: (I mean sorta since the originaly were), Alternate Universe - Twins, Family Feels, Foster Care, Foster system is a mess, Found Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mary's POV, Missing Scenes, Twins, sibling separation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-07-29 00:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 11,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20073220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Axandrela/pseuds/Axandrela
Summary: Usually 'Found Family' refers to building a family from strangers, but sometimes it can also mean reuniting with your other half.(Aka: What if Billy and Mary were still twins like they are in the original comics)





	1. The Carnival

**Author's Note:**

> So my family bought Shazam the weekend before last, and my 6yo sister insisted on watching it 6 times over the course of our family's week at the cabin. And so I now have a new hyperfixation. And absolutely fell in love with all of their characters especially Mary, because I too am the nerdy older sister who is your big sister regardless of actual relationship. (By my count I have 31 younger siblings, 5 of whom are legally my siblings, and only 4 are biologically my siblings) And then I started researching the older comics to start reading those as well as the new continuity, and found out that Mary and Billy were originally twins, and am now very confused at why they changed it. And it might be due to my slight obsession with twins, but I just had to write this.

Mary doesn’t remember anything from before, nor does she remember much about that day. She remembers riding on the merry-go-round, giggles both in her throat and ears as she and her twin sat side by side on a pair of horses. She remembers walking hand in hand with a woman, their mother she supposes, and seeing her brother’s hand slip out of the hand opposite to where she grasps. She remembers feeling something slip out of each hand, presumably the hand she had been holding and some sort of small toy like the one Billy had gone to chase after.

She remembers grasping onto the end of one of the straps on her brother’s backpack, and holding it tight as she struggles to stay with him. She remembers the sea of people all around them, the suffocating feeling of coats on all sides as they dodged between the legs of the crowd. She remembers grabbing his arm when he finally catches his toy, and thinking now they can go home.

She remembers the panicked fear at not seeing anything or anyone familiar other than her twin, as he yells for their mother. Clutching to his coat as tears pour down her cheeks as they weave back through the crowd. The overflow of relief as she spots a familiar red jacket, and both of them run to grasp the woman. But it’s not her.

She remembers sitting on the hood of the police car, clutching Billy’s arm as the officer tries to console them. She remembers curling up and crying with her brother that night in a single bed in a small bunk-room at the CPS office. She remembers staying there and waiting to be picked up for hours, then another night and then the two of them being picked up by someone else.


	2. Foster Homes Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, um... I somehow managed to write all 8.5ish thousand words for this fic over the course of two days. While having two university final exams on those two days and studying for them. And making myself a Bes'bev (a stabby flute from the Star Wars universe. It comes from Mandalore) out of PVC, and spending hours trying to teach myself how to play it. And helping my little siblings with a lemonade stand both days. And coming up with a ton of stuff for all 8 of my D&D characters in 7 campaigns, as well as for the campaign I'm DMing. And coming up with some stuff for my original WIP. And reading for several hours. And watching this movie probably eight times to get scenes for this fic right. All while dying of combined athsma (due to scar tissue in my lungs from undiagnosed pneumonia in grade 10) and bronchitis. My chest feels like it's on fire (and running around trying to play my flute for several hours made it worse) and I really don't know how I did it, or how I'm still conscious. But somehow that's the situation, and you get the next chapter slot earlier than I planned. Enjoy!
> 
> *Also, this is one of the chapters that deals with child abuse, so you have been warned.

She remembers their first foster family being noisy and loud, but warm. The family had two teenagers of their own, a girl and a boy who were always bickering with each other or their parents, but all of whom were nice to them. She remembers someone who wasn’t Billy holding her and rocking her back and forth after she woke up crying one night. They didn’t stay there very long, or at least it doesn’t seem like they did. She remembers they spent their fifth birthday there having a little party and a snowball fight in the yard just as spring was starting to melt the snow. They were moved before all the snow was gone.

Their second foster home is where she first gets hit. Not by a guardian, not this home at least. It’s by the son and only real child in the family. He’s about two or three years older than them, and doesn’t want to share his parents. The parents coddle her and Billy, having desperately wanted more kids and trying for years before turning to the foster system. In public the older boy at least seems to tolerate them, as long as he has one parent paying complete attention to him. Out of sight of his parents however he takes toys from them and pushes them. The parents brush the first dozen or so occurrences of injuries off as accidents, and lecture all three kids not to play so roughly. When he pushes her off of the top of jungle-gym and she breaks her leg however, they admit this placement may not be the best, and a social worker comes to pick them up the next morning.

For years Mary wishes that they could have stayed in their third foster home. Their foster mother is a kind older lady with curly red hair that is fading to white. She has another foster daughter in high school, and several former foster children in university and the workforce who come visit her on weekends and for holidays. Mary remembers this woman teaching her how to read in the first month she is there, her broken leg propped up on a pillow as she’s held in a warm embrace. The older girl teaches her and Billy to do cartwheels in the yard, and takes them on ‘adventures’ in the park down the street. There is fresh bread every Friday afternoon, and a mug of hot chocolate waiting when the weather gets cold. They stay there for just over a year before they are taken to a new home, crying that they didn’t want to go as Aunty Millie and now eighteen year old Alice hug them goodbye with tears in their own eyes.

They’ve been in the system for two years when they’re placed in their fourth foster home. And it is an absolutely nightmare, especially compared to the previous one. The parents are angry and yelling all the time. The two of them hide under his bed most nights, whispering to each other stories that they either read at school or remember from their last home. One day Billy gets sick at school and has to be picked up, when she gets off the bus at the end of the day and runs to their room to check on him she finds him with a black eye and bruised handprints all along his upper arms. When she gets sick at school two days later she begs with the nurse not to send her back there. A social worker picks them up instead of the school bus that afternoon, and she’s very glad she had brought her stuffed bunny to school that day, as they don’t get to pack their things. They’ve been there for a month and a half.

The next home is nowhere near as bad, but it’s still far from good. There’s not always real food, mostly just snacks and dry cereal. Sometimes there will be bread and peanut butter, or a bunch of over ripe bananas. Their foster parents pick up some form of take out on their way home from work most nights though, so they never truly go hungry. The house isn’t always warm, the food is never good, and they aren’t given hugs or much affection at all. But there is a roof and walls to protect them from the elements, their bellies are usually full, they aren’t being hit or yelled at, and most importantly they have each other. She at least is relatively content there for the six months they remain with this couple. She gets in several arguments with Billy though. He keeps trying to convince her to help him find their mom. When Mary finally snaps and yells at him that she isn’t ever coming back for them he storms off and doesn’t speak to her for weeks. He's still glaring at her and refusing to speak with her even as the social worker comes to pick them up and bring them to their new, and separate placements.


	3. Foster Homes Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, because I basically finished writing this fic (I have one chapter that I need to edit, and possibly split into two because I got a new idea) I've decided to post a chapter a day till it's done. Enjoy!
> 
> !!WARNING: THIS CHAPTER DEALS WITH CHILD ABUSE MORE THAN THE LAST ONE!!

She’s nervous and fidgety as she is led to the door of her first placement without her twin. She keeps subconsciously reaching for a hand that isn’t there, and probably wouldn’t reach back right now if he was there any way. This home is a group home, with six other girls between the ages of eight and twelve, her not quite seven and a half years being the youngest of the group.

It’s crowded and stuffy, and she misses her brother. The other girls tease her for the stuffed rabbit she keeps tucked under her arm at all times, and for sucking on her thumb when she gets nervous. She frequently cries herself to sleep, wishing at the very least she could be with her brother again, but that only makes the older girls tease her more. She’s there another six months, leaving just after her first Christmas without Billy.

When she’s brought back to the CPS office to await her next placement she asks if Billy will be joining her. She learns that he ran away from his last two homes, and hasn’t been seen in two weeks. When the couple comes to pick her up her cheeks are so tear streaked with worry over her brother that she doesn’t notice the sadistic smiles they give her as they lead her into the back of their car.

Her bunny that Aunty Millie gave her is her only friend at this house, and even then she has to hide the bunny so it isn’t taken away like her few other toys and books. She keeps her bunny in her desk at school during the day and tucked between her mattress and the floor in the evenings and weekends, only pulling it out when she knows both adults are asleep. She knows they’re asleep after the noises in the rest of the house stop, then she can pull out bunny and pretend it’s all a bad dream.

Pretend that her arms aren’t covered in scratches and bruises. Pretend that her jaw doesn’t ache from a slap across her face. Pretend that there’s an adult who she at least partially trusts taking care of her. And pretend that Billy is simply in the room next to her, or another bed across the room, and that they’re safe and together.

When the man starts looking at her weird and coming into her tiny little room to push her around more, she leaves. Some of the girls in her last house told horror stories about horrible foster fathers, and it terrifies her to think of that happening to her too, so she runs away before anything worse can happen. She simply shoves as much clothing as she can into her school bag with the box of granola bars she keeps there, and climbs out the window.


	4. Runaway

The winter air is cold as it whips around her, and she’s not sure if it’s the fear of falling six stories to the ground or what she thinks is probably a slight concussion, but she’s dizzy as she inches across the small ledge to the neighbors fire escape. Once she’s on the ground she simply sprints away as fast as she can, not caring what direction she’s running even. Eventually she makes it to a library just as it opens for the morning, and hides in a little reading ‘tree’ in the back of the kids area and falls asleep clutching her bunny close.

She survives for a almost six weeks just on the granola bars in her bag and the free hot chocolate and breakfast that the YMCA that the library is housed in gives out twice a week, taking more than she can eat in a single meal, and saving the leftovers for the next day or so. She spends her days split between the library and roaming the streets looking for her brother.

It’s while on the streets looking for Billy that the cops find her and bring her back to CPS. She’s shaking with fear as the social worker asks her what happened, why she ran away. The words tumble from her mouth almost as fast as the tears stream from her eyes, and she flinches as the woman puts a gentle hand on her shoulder to reassure her.

She spends the night at CPS while her and Billy’s social worker tries to find somewhere she’ll feel safe, and writes up the necessary paperwork to revoke the foster parent status of her last placement if not get them arrested as well. Mary asks if she can make sure Billy can at least join her eventually, but the woman simply purses her lips together unassuringly and walks away.


	5. Vasquez

It’s the day before her eighth birthday that the Vasquez’s pick her up from CPS. She’s shaking and nervous, but so are they. They’re a young couple, only licensed foster parents for about a month, and she’s their first foster child. They greet her with shaking smiles and offer her a book. ‘The Secret Garden’ Mary smiles softly and accepts the book. It’s one she read last week while hiding out in the library.

She looks up at the couple’s faces, understanding their message and tries to gauge the sincerity of it. After several moments deliberation, she allows her smile to widen slightly and slips her hand into the woman’s. Her grip is hesitant, but the affectionate physical contact causes her to melt slightly. Just the hand in hers and the weight of her new book in her other hand is comforting.

The house is big to her tiny self, but somehow it doesn’t feel empty. The smell of fresh baking fills her nose as soon as she walks in the door and she feels at safe in a way she hasn’t in years. She flinches slightly at a hand on her shoulder, but relaxes under the man’s gentle touch.

“I’m gonna go get started on lunch while Rosa shows you where your room is. Is there anything specific you’d like to eat?”

Mary shakes her head slightly, clinging to the woman’s hand. She’s shown to a room upstairs with pale yellow walls with green and pink polka dots, and a big window into the backyard. There’s a bed in one corner with a pink bedspread and a toy box at the foot, with a dresser in another corner.

“I know it may not look like much right now nena, but we thought we’d let you decorate it yourself.” Mary figures she must have nodded as she moved to sit on her new bed because the woman proceeds to ramble “We thought you could use the room on the other side of the stairs as a playroom, the room next to yours is where Victor and I sleep, and the room at the opposite end of the hall is currently a guest room. Now, I’ll leave you here to get settled and go help make lunch, then we can have some of the churros I made this morning and go shopping for some new clothes and toys for your birthday tomorrow. Is there anything you want or need?”

“My brother.” She’s dimly aware of tears splattering down her cheeks as her new foster mother sits on the bed next to her and places a gentle arm around her.

“Oh mija, I know. And we’ll do everything we can to get him placed here too. I promise.”


	6. Freddy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is probably one of my favorites, and is inspired by the line in the movie of "Even Mary ran away. Twice!" as well as these pages of Shazam! #1 (https://why-i-love-comics.tumblr.com/post/180846081166/shazam-1-mary-2018-written-by-geoff-johns)

The first year passes slowly and quickly at the same time. She wakes up in the morning and cleans her room before heading to school, she does all her chores as soon as she’s asked, she does her absolute best at her schoolwork and reaches the top of her class, and spends her evenings reading or playing quietly by herself in the playroom as not to disturb her foster parents. She runs away once after accidentally breaking a plate while doing dishes, and they find her and bring her back after little less than an hour.

After that especially she tries to be perfect, to be the best kid she possibly can because she’s safe here. She’s safe and cared for, and it may not be home yet but they promised to reunite her with her twin, and she doesn’t want them to send her away or mess up enough that she gets taken away either. She knows she’s distancing herself from them, and that they wish she wouldn’t, but she would rather they send her away than accept them as her family and then be taken from them.

She knows they’re working on getting approved for another child to be placed with them, and knows that they promised to help her find Billy. So when they sit her down and explain to her that they’ve been asked to take in a little boy just a few months younger than her named Freddy she almost cries. She wants her brother not a foster brother. Instead she nods silently and goes up to her room to scream into her pillow.

That night is the second time she runs away, climbing out her window and taking off for several hours, planning on finding Billy. This time however she returns on her own to find them frantically looking for her. She knows Rosa and Victor are just trying to help, trying to get kids out of the dangerous ‘homes’ and off the streets. But it’s been almost two years since she’s seen her twin, and she wants him back. She doesn’t want this Freddy to be in a bad placement like the one she ran from, and knows he’ll be safe here with her. When they tell her they won’t accept this placement if she has a problem with it she tells them that she’s alright with them taking Freddy in too. Privately though she can’t help but wish it was Billy they would be picking up in the morning.

Freddy moves into the spare room at the far end of the hallway from her, on the other side of the bathroom and the bedroom they use as a playroom. He’s loud and mischievous, and quite frankly reminds her of Billy before their last two shared placements. He propels himself around on his crutches in a way she’s sure they aren’t meant to be used, telling jokes and begging her to play superheroes with him. She tries to ignore him, tries not to let his presence change anything about her security systems she has built up around herself in the past year. So she hardly even talks to him in the first few weeks.

She’s not all that surprised when she’s granted permission to go to the pet store around the corner alone. So long as she asks and tells them where she’ll be Victor and Rosa are pretty understanding about her needing freedom and alone time, especially after her running away. She is very surprised however when Freddy decides to tag along. She tries to brush him off and ignore him, but next thing she knows she’s cradling a stolen rabbit in her arms and laughing with him as they run back home from the pet store they just sent into chaos.

The next day she agrees to play superheroes with him, and as they run around the house laughing she thinks for the first time that maybe Freddy can be her brother as well as Billy. She can have her twin and a little brother too.

It’s only a few weeks later that she starts calling Rosa and Victor ‘Mama’ and ‘Dad’.


	7. Darla

Mary's second year as part of the Vasquez family she skips a grade in school for the first time, going straight from third grade to fifth. She’s only in the same grade as her new younger brother for a few months before starting the new school year a grade ahead. Despite this though the two of them bond quickly and become thick as thieves. They’ll be running around the house and yard, teasing each other as they play superheroes or with the bunny they stole and named Hoppy. They’ll frequently hear one of their parents sigh in fond exasperation and refer to them as “tramposos”. Neither of them have picked up enough Spanish yet to know the exact translation, but Mary thinks she gets the idea and gives them a slightly apologetic grin when she hears it.

Every month as she grows closer with Freddy and their family grows closer to being allowed a third child in their home, she grows more and more excited for her two brothers to meet. When they’re finally allowed a third child in their home, Billy is has been at another placement for the past few months and their family begins the paperwork to have him transferred to their care. It’s three days later that they learn he ran away again. Mary spends that evening howling into her pillow while Mama Rosa rubs her back trying to console her.

It’s several months later, with no word on Billy’s whereabouts in that time, that they’re approached about taking Darla in. Mary is upset about another delay in reuniting with her twin, but even more upset upon hearing about how this little four year old girl was abandoned at a church. It hits too close to her own story, and she’s instantly agreeing, even offering to share a room with the much younger girl so they don’t have to give up their playroom.

The little girl is shy and clingy, always insisting on some form of physical contact. Mary imagines she must have been the same way at that point in her life, but she had Billy with her to provide that constant assurance of not being alone. So she lets Darla cling to her when she’s home from school, pushes their beds closer together so she can hold the little girl’s hand in their sleep, and just generally showers her new younger sister with affection.

Freddy teases her about spoiling the toddler. Claiming that if she carries the younger girl everywhere she’ll forget how to walk, and then Billy will be her only sibling to walk properly. She sticks out her tongue at him and shoves him playfully as he dramatically sighs about no longer being anyone’s favorite sibling. Darla responds by wrapping her little arms around his neck instead. Their parents simply laugh and smile at each other over the children’s heads. Freddy still doesn’t call them by parental titles for a few more months, but it only takes a few weeks before Darla begins to.


	8. Eugene

It takes Rosa and Victor longer to get them licensed for a fourth child in their home that it did for a second or third, and as such there’s no real possibility for Billy or any other child to join their family in the next year and a half after Darla joins them. They spend the time growing closer as a family and dealing with the children’s various traumas. Freddy transitioning from two crutches to one slows down the pace a little bit, but Darla starting school and breaking out of her shyness ramps that pace back up.

Finding school easy, particularly math and english classes, Mary skips another grade, going into eighth grade at eleven years old while Freddy goes into sixth and Darla starts kindergarten. Their parents joke about how at the rate she’s going she’ll be done university before she’s old enough to leave their custody. She blushes and grins at the praise, but privately Mary wonders if that’s a good thing or not.

Eugene joins their family next, moving into the playroom-bedroom, and by this point Mary can’t even bring herself to be disappointed that Billy still isn’t joining them. She misses her twin and desperately hopes that he’s safe wherever he is, but she grins and welcomes her new little brother warmly. At seven years old the little boy is already in grade three and is constantly asking both her and Freddy to teach him what they’re learning in school. She happily complies, explaining to him how to do her eighth grade math, while he sits wide eyed and nodding in understanding. She lends him some of her favorite books as well and takes him to the library a few blocks away to find more.

Some nights she lays in her bed wondering where Billy is. Hoping that he’s safe and warm in a home that cares about him. Dreading the possibility that he’s in a dangerous placement. Wondering if he ran away again, and how he’s surviving if he did. Wishing that he could be there with her. But then she realizes that logistically she would have to give up one of her other siblings for him to be there. And as much as she loves him, she loves them just the same. She couldn’t give any of them up for the world.


	9. Pedro

She’s thirteen and has skipped yet another grade, when suddenly she isn’t the oldest anymore. It’s kinda weird, especially when the fourteen year old boy is still in ninth grade, and chooses to room with nine year old, fifth grade Eugene instead of with Freddy. Pedro is quiet too, a stark change from her three younger siblings who all ramble endlessly about anything and everything that has struck their interest without needing any prompting.

She tries to talk with him, try to befriend him, but he stays quiet seemingly content to listen to her talk about schoolwork or the latest book she read. Or listen to Freddy ramble about Superheroes, or Eugene about whatever science experiment caught his attention that day, or Darla about the new friend she made at school.

It almost surprises her when he asks her for help with his homework one night, simply because he has hardly said anything to her the whole time he’s been there. This must be how Freddy felt when she tried to ignore him when they were little. She agrees happily and sits down next to him, helping him write his essay for english, and then with his math homework due the day after next as well. The next day she sees Eugene helping him with his science and smiles.

It doesn’t really feel like she’s younger than him, not like it does with her classmates at least. And she doesn’t feel like there’s any difference between how she treats Pedro, and how she treats any of her other siblings. And maybe there should be a difference in how they interact, but she doesn’t really know how to be a younger sibling. The closest she can think of to a time when she considered someone her older sibling is when she was at Aunty Millie’s house and Alice would take her and Billy to the park, but she doesn’t remember much about when she was that little, and since reconnecting with the pair Alice is almost closer to an aunt or a much older cousin to her.

At least she thinks that’s the only time she’s been a younger sibling before now. She can’t remember if she’s older or Billy is, and she’s not sure if she ever even knew that. Even if Billy is older than her it’s not really enough to count, and it’s been about half of their lives since she’s even seen him. She just remembers that he would make everything better by simply being there, he’d protect her and hold her when she cried, like she does for Freddy and Eugene and Darla. And maybe that’s the only difference between being an older sibling and a younger one.

The next time the older kids in her class are teasing her for being a nerd, she let’s herself breakdown at lunch rather than holding it in till she gets home and her parents can comfort her. Pedro finds her and silently sits next to her. He listens to her rant, hesitantly reaching over to wrap her in a hug. It’s different from when even Freddy hugs her to comfort her. She feels safer. Like maybe she doesn’t have to be the one to protect everyone. Maybe there’s people other than her parents there to protect her. She melts into his hug and thinks that maybe it won’t be so weird having an older brother and not being the oldest anymore.


	10. Billy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we are now entering back into movie territory. As such it will be changed/added scenes and existing scenes from Mary's POV from here out. Enjoy!

At fourteen she’s starting to realize why kids aren’t supposed to finish high school until they’re seventeen or eighteen. Until they are or are at least almost grown ups. It’s hard trying to balance her schoolwork and chores, and university applications, and family stuff. And she really just wants a break, to be able to play with her siblings, or even just sit down and read for fun for a few hours.

She’s vaguely aware of the fact that their family has been approved for a sixth child in their home, but doesn’t really have time to consider this beyond more than a simple fact. The universities she’s applied to are all impressed with her transcripts, but hesitant about her age, so she really needs to nail her interview tonight and impress them so she’ll get accepted. This is her only train of thought, and she hardly does more than nod at being told that they’ve been offered another placement, and they’ll pick him up before dinner.

She’s on the phone for her interview when they get home and completely oblivious to the world around her. Her thoughts and word move several miles a minute and she doesn’t pay any attention to the new kid. Her mind is in too much of a panic for her to notice anything. She immediately rushes over to her dad, and asks him what she’s most excited about, before she blindly rushes back out of the room still on the phone. Wrapping the interview up quickly, she comes back in a minute later with a wide grin on her face to greet the new arrival.

She freezes in place as soon as she sets eyes on him. It’s him. It’s Billy. Her twin. Her other half. She’s vaguely aware of her parents explaining her skipped grades and what’s going on with her and university, not having noticed her return to the room. But all her mind can truly comprehend is him staring back at her in shock.

She isn’t aware of moving at all, but suddenly her arms are around him, face ducked into the crook of his neck and tears are rolling down her cheeks as she whispers his name in disbelief. He’s stiff and hesitant as he wraps his arms loosely around her and awkwardly pats her shoulder. Almost as if he’s forgotten how to show affection. They stand there for a minute as he slowly relaxes into her embrace.

“I thought finding you was more hopeless than finding mom…”

She shakes her head against his neck and shoulder. “I was here. Waiting for you.”

Finding it awkward just standing there Darla decides to join the hug, and tries to wrap her arms around both of them at once. Billy stiffens back up but Mary laughs and moves an arm to wrap around her little sister as well. They soon break apart though at the sound of a fire alarm blaring, and smoke billowing out from the kitchen. Darla pulls her arm as she yells and runs to save her, frankly horrid, tofurky. She doesn’t want to leave her twin again, irrationally afraid that he’ll run away in the next ten minutes before dinner, but she also likes having a non burnt down house and allows her sister to pull her away from him.

“Oh no! Maybe we’ll have to eat a real turkey!!”

As Dad follows the two of them into the kitchen, she faintly hears Mama and Billy’s conversation and smiles softly despite the chaos around her.

“Is that…”

“Don’t worry about it. Come on, I’ll show you your room, then you and Mary can get reacquainted after dinner.”


	11. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's the first thing you do when you see your sibling for the first time in years? Resume your argument from 7y ago obviously...

She sits anxiously though dinner, desperate to finally talk with her twin for the first time in over seven years. She’s so distracted that she hardly tastes Darla's weird vegan substitute food. She doesn’t notice knocking her fork off the table as she finishes eating, but Mama certainly does.

“Ok twins, you two go catch up in the family room. Pedro, Freddy it’s your night to do the dishes. Pequeños you go play upstairs. The twins have a lot to talk about and I don’t want you bothering them tonight.”

Mary is in a daze as she nods and grabs Billy’s arm, pulling them over to one of the couches in the family room. She can’t remember the last time someone referred to her and Billy as the twins. Referred to them as a unit. She didn’t realize she missed it till now. The two sit next to each other, her immediately relaxing and pulling her legs up to sit cross legged. He however sits stiffly on the edge of the couch as if afraid to touch the cushions at all. She stares at him expectantly, waiting for him to tell her where he’s been while she’s been waiting for the system to track him down long enough for her parents to get custody of him.

“How long have you been here?” His words are awkward, almost hesitant to speak. She frowns in disappointment. Not where she wanted to start the conversation, but oh well.

She starts from the beginning, right after they were separated and tells him everything. She tells him about the group home that she was in for the first six months. About the following placement, and why she ran away. She tells him about the month and a half that she spent living in a library in a YMCA. And about how the Vasquez’s took her in the day after she was found by the police. She tells him about begging them to take him in too, and the circumstances that led to the other kids joining them. She tells him about school and how many grades she’s skipped, and how stressed she is about university. She rambles on for hours, telling him every detail of her life that he had missed.

And then she asks him the same question, expecting a similar rambling answer. His answer instead is stilted and hesitant. “I ran away from the first home after about two months. Spent a couple on the street before I got caught. Ran away from the next about as fast, and repeated it. I lost count of how many placements I had after a while.”

Her voice trembles as she asks her question, reaching her hand out to clasp his. “Were they that bad?”

He shrugs, letting his hand lay limply in hers. “Some of them. Not all.”

“Then why did you run away every single time?”

“I was trying to find Mom. Figured if I found her she would get us out of the system. Take us home.”

“You’re gonna run away again aren’t you.”

He shrugs once more. “Haven’t found her yet. But if we find her we could finally have a family again.”

She’s hurt by his words. Didn’t he listen to anything she told him? She knows her words come out with a lot more bite in them than she wants them to, but she can’t help it with how riled up her emotions are tonight. “I have a family. I have for almost half my life. They were there for me when you were off chasing after a fantasy. Everyone here is my family just as much as you are, and will be yours too if you just let them.”

He stares blankly at her for several moments, a look of almost confusion in his eyes. As if he’s trying to grasp what she’s saying, but incapable of doing so. Then he runs upstairs, leaving her on the couch with a tear streaked face. She sits there in the silence, wincing at the slam of his and Freddy’s bedroom door. After a few moments her parents are beside her on the couch holding her and rubbing circles on her back to calm her.


	12. First Day

She makes a point of ignoring Billy the next day as they get ready for and then drive to school, not saying a word to him until they part ways for classes. She doesn’t think he notices, especially with Darla's rambling the entire time. She’s silently fuming at him all through the morning, and as such has trouble focusing on her classes. By the time lunch rolls around she’s decided that it’s not fair to be mad at him, all the other kids in the family had issues when they first arrived, and still have issues to this day. Herself included. It’s not fair for her to be mad at him, just cause his issues haven’t had a chance to be resolved yet.

So she anxiously waits throughout the afternoon to talk to her twin again when school gets out. She asks him how his day was, and he ignores her. Then Freddy is hit by those idiots in their truck, and they start beating on him. And all she can do is hold Darla back from stepping in the way and getting pummeled herself. She can’t charge in there and protect Freddy from her classmates, or chase after Billy as he walks away using the chaos to escape.

And then Billy is in the fight too and Eugene somehow escapes Pedro’s grasp. And she’s not sure how her eleven year old brother managed to smuggle nunchucks into school, but suddenly three of her four brothers are all involved in this fight. Then Billy is running away, being chased by those idiots. But she can’t chase after him because both Freddy and Eugene are hurt and Freddy especially is gonna need both her and Pedro’s help getting home.

She desperately hopes that Billy will come home on his own as soon as he manages to shake the two older boys off his tail. But as the hours pass she grows increasingly worried, and then Mama and Dad are calling the cops to report him missing, and all she can do is help Eugene try and fail to track him down, and try and keep Darla calm when she herself is on the verge of a panic attack.

She does fall into that panic attack as soon as the two little kids go to bed. Mama takes her into the master bedroom for some privacy while she calms down, and she proceeds to fall asleep there. She wakes up to a clap of thunder sounding as though its mere feet away as the power goes out. It takes her a few minutes to fully wake up but looking out the window the sky is clear, so she heads downstairs to ask her parents what happened. They assure her that it’s probably just a popped breaker and they’ll have it fixed by morning. They also inform her that Billy snuck back in, and that she should go back to bed and wait to talk with him in the morning.

In the morning she notices a scorched hole through the roof and ceiling of her room. Upon asking Darla if she knows what happened she simply gets a tight lipped smile before her sister sprints away.


	13. Hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit longer of a chapter today, and a bit later at night than usual too. Enjoy!

She hardly sees either Billy or Freddy for the next two weeks. The two of them only appearing late for breakfast and at dinner, where they proceed to take off again as soon as possible. She’s glad her two closest brothers are getting along and that they’re becoming friends. She also knows that she’s crazy busy and has no time to spend with them doing what ever they keep running off for. But she can’t help but feel hurt that the two of them would keep a secret from her, as well as jealous and left out.

One day at dinner they begin to discuss their city’s new superhero and it quickly turns into an argument between Billy and Freddy. She’s confused at how quickly their apparent instant friendship seems to have evaporated in the span of a few hours. She tries to talk to Billy that night after he storms off, while Mama and Dad talk to Freddy, but he won’t open the door and simply yells at her to go away. She sits in the reading nook in front of the door for several hours while she does her homework.

The next morning she gets her acceptance letter to Caltech. She’s not sure how to feel. When she applied she figured it was just part of growing up, and that it was an inevitability. She also was thinking solely about her learning. Not giving any though to her family. And especially now that she’s gotten her childhood wish of being reunited with her twin, the only thing that she had considered her life to be missing, she can’t bear the thought of leaving her family. She skips school that day for the first time in years and instead wanders around the city, trying to get her thoughts sorted out.

She doesn’t notice the snowplow until the hero has pulled her out of the way and is asking her if she’s alright. She’s confused at how he knows her name and he rambles of some nonsensical answer as she feels her eyes grow damp. She really wants to burst into tears and explain everything to him, but he’s a superhero and probably has better things to do than comfort a crying teenager. To her surprise he sits next to her and continues asking her what’s wrong. It has to be the weirdest conversation of her life. 

“The point is... You do you, you know? You gotta look out for you. And get as far away from this place as you can.”

She stares at him incredulously. “I’m just a kid. And especially now that I have my twin back… I don’t know if I want to.”

“Of course you do. What are you gonna do? You're gonna live in a group home for the rest of your life? Look, families are for people who can't take care of themselves. Okay? So. And you know, y-you can take care of yourself, you know. Also, look both ways when you cross the street.”

She sits there in stunned silence for several moments after he leaves. ‘You do you’? ‘Look out for number one'? ‘Families are for people who can’t take care of themselves’? That advice doesn’t sound like that of a grownup, let alone like a superhero. At least not a mentally stable grown up. In fact it sounds like what Billy and Freddy were arguing about last night.

If anything the hero's arguments for why she needs to go make her more certain she needs to stay. Her parents and most of her siblings would miss her a lot but they would survive without her. Given he has the same mentality as this self destructive super, she’s not sure Billy will survive though. She’s almost certain he’ll run as soon as she’s on the plane to California and that any more time raising himself on the street would be the death of his possible mental stability. She’s also not sure she would survive the renewed separation so soon.

Mind made up, still frazzled but decided, she begins her return trek towards the school. If she hurries she’ll be back by the end of her lunch period.


	14. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fast update mid D&D, so enjoy!

She plans on addressing the issue of her schooling that night at dinner, but when neither Billy or Freddy are there when she joins the rest of their siblings leaving the school she begins to worry. Their parents call the school when only the four of them come home and find out that the two boys have been skipping almost every day. She cringes through her own interrogation on why she skipped that morning and if she knows what her twin and Freddy have been doing. When Billy comes home alone and injured a couple hours later she almost panics. He quickly tells everyone that he has no clue where Freddy is as he’s marched up to his room to be lectured and patched up.

When she sees her younger brother on the news arguing with the hero, the pieces snap together almost instantly. Billy. Her twin brother. Is the superhero. Her idiot twin, who keeps fighting the concept of family at every turn while clinging to the fantasy of a woman who abandoned them. The boy who has run away two dozen times and skips school every single day. Is somehow the hero who saved her this morning. Despite Darla’s squealing confirmation, she’s still processing this information when they confront him.  
When they offer him the other two boys’ peace offering she feels sick to her stomach. She doesn’t want to see her twin run off again, let alone face the heartbreak she knows is coming for him.

“Your parents names are Marilyn and C.C. Batson!”  
She looks down, almost wishing she had waited for now to hear the information Eugene found. Waited to hear it with Billy, instead of listening to it alone while waiting for his lecture to be over. Her twin stops in his tracks. “…What?”

“The two of you were born in Zumbrota, Minnesota. Mary is five minutes older by the way.” She whips around in shock. The little hacker had failed to reveal that snippet of information earlier. He continues explaining, smirking at her surprise at this new information to all of them. Mary looks back to her (younger!) twin as Eugene tells him about their birth parents’ divorce and their birth father being in jail. Then the little boy gets to their birth mother.

When Billy asks if their birth mom is dead she really wants to lie to him and say it’s the truth, if only to let him keep his fantasy in some sense. Still she gulps down her anxiousness and tells him the truth.

“She’s two subway stops away.” 

“What?”

“You know, you didn’t find her because she reverted to her maiden name.” 

He grabs her hand “Come on then! We have to go find her!”

She shakes her head, slipping her hand from his grasp. “No. You can, and I’ll come for moral support, but regardless I’m staying. I’ve told you. This is my family right here. If she had wanted us she would have found us sometime in the last ten years. There’s only heartbreak in finding her.”

He shakes his head and takes a step back. “You’re wrong. You have to be.” And before she can respond he’s out the door at a sprint.

She's out the door almost as fast as he is. Unable to let her twin face this heartbreak alone. She vaguely hears Mama and Dad calling for them and sending the other kids back inside as they hop in the car to follow. But that doesn’t matter right now. She has to keep up with her twin to protect him.


	15. Birth-Mother

She catches him by his sleeve as they reach the subway. Just the two of them in a crowd again. Him searching for the same woman. Her just trying to stay with him.

“I told you I’d come with you. I’m not letting you do this alone.” He stares at her for a moment before nodding, and they proceed to get on the train.

The walk from the subway station to the apartment building is cold and the fact that she’s having to run to keep up with Billy does little against it. The building itself isn’t much better and she instinctively hides behind Billy clutching his arm to her as though a shield when angry shouting fills the air. Eventually though they make it to their destination. Billy stands before the door hesitantly, and she wishes he would just turn around so they could go back home. He knocks.

“Just a second!”

She holds her breath dreading what is to come before the door opens.

“Hey look. I’m late for work already alright. We don’t need any magazines or whatever.”

Billy cuts the woman off. “Oh, I’m not.” The woman turns back into the apartment, and Mary want’s to snap at her but all she can do is stare at that red jacket on the wall. “You probably don’t recognize us but, we found our way home.” Her twin holds out something to the woman as she elbows him in the side, not wanting to be included in that sentence.

She has a home. She has a family. And has for years. It doesn’t matter what this woman says or that Billy doesn’t want to be part of her family. She has a family. She glares at him as he adoringly calls this woman their mother and introduces them. She has to force herself to withhold a bitter chuckle from escaping her mouth as the woman sidesteps Billy’s attempted hug. Still, she places a comforting hand on her brother’s shoulder pulling him closer to her. She can’t stop the escape of the bitter laugh that escapes as the woman dismisses them as no one. She ignores the next few exchanges fuming silently at the woman. Until Billy speaks again.

“We didn’t mean to run away. You know that right? I let go, but it was by accident, and Mary was just trying to stay with me…”

“Yeah, no. I know. I saw you.”

At that she snaps her eyes to the woman’s, fixing her with a glare of utter contempt. Billy utters a phrase of confusion and the woman explains in more detail. Explaining that she was too young, and being a single mother of twins was too much.

“I saw you two with the police, I realized that they could do a better job taking care of you than I ever will. But you’re good, right? I mean you landed on your feet. 'Cause, I mean, you look real good. It's just... Now is not a really good time for me kids.”

Even as Billy shakes his head and stares at the woman in utter heartbreak, her own resentful response escapes her mouth. “A lot better than we would have been with you. Come on Billy. Mama and Dad are worried and looking for us.” She tries to pull him away with her as she starts to walk down the hallway.

Her brother stays there staring at the woman. “All I wanted to do was let you know we're doing good, but... Mary’s right, we have to get back to our real family, so. Here.”

A further exchange continues but she blocks it out. Grinning widely at her brother. She holds out her hand to him as he catches up. “Time to go home?” There are tears in his eyes but he nods.

They barely reach the elevator before his phone rings. Dread fills her heart at hearing an unknown voice, and panic joins it as Freddy yells about a supervillain. Then Billy is dragging her to the roof in a panic himself.


	16. Hostages

“I need you to jump off the roof!”

Mary freezes mid step at Billy’s words. Stopping him mere feet onto the roof. “What!?!”

“I’ll catch you! Just trust me!”

Hesitantly meeting his eyes she nods and the two break out in a sprint. He drops her hand just as they leap and for a terrifying moment she’s falling. Then lightning zaps her brother and he swoops down in his hero form to catch her. If it wasn’t for the utter panic at the thought of her other siblings being stuck with a supervillain, Mary is certain she would be laughing from pure adrenaline at flying. It’s exhilarating being in the sky with only her twin and his mystical powers keeping her there. She clutches to him trying not to fall as he flies as fast as he possibly can, and in only a few minutes they’re home.

He sets her down at the front door and flies round to the back. She can hear him yelling at the villain, and Darla whimpering in fear as she sneaks in. The monster looming over her siblings hardly gives her pause as she meets Billy’s eyes. Simultaneously he approaches the house, causing the man to call off his beast, while she rushes for their siblings. She places herself between the villain and their non-superpowered brothers, instantly scooping their little sister into her arms.

The man hasn’t noticed her as she calms the little girl, too busy taunting her twin. If she weren’t so scared of being noticed she would laugh at Billy’s remark of being “Basically fifteen.” as their birthday isn’t for a couple months.

Then Freddy is yelling, and there’s a magic door, and Darla’s running for Billy. And there goes their plan of sneaking the others out. Even as she pries the little girl off their brother, she wants to cling to him too. To hide under a bed and hold each other like they used to do in dangerous situations. But despite not being the oldest sibling, she’s still the big sister and has to protect the rest of her siblings.

“I have to. It’s what a good brother would do.”

She gives him a tight smile and nods. Pulling Darla closer to herself as they watch their brother and the villain walk through the door that normally leads to the storage room. She instructs the others to all grab the nearest makeshift weapon they can find, and they charge in after them.


	17. SHAZAMily

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is mostly just Mary POV of the battle, but anyway enjoy!

They immediately have to navigate through a maze of cave hallways. Running after the sound of the two supers fighting each other. And Freddy actually manages to hit the villain with a Batarang. Then there’s more of these weird big ugly monsters, and they’re all running for their lives. It takes them a while to get out of the cave, the villain right behind them as they escape. And she’s so embarrassed to be related to Billy as they appear in a strip club, and she has to cover their little sister’s eyes as they sprint out of there. Then they’re being chased again as they run into the carnival.

They regroup hiding behind one of the game booths, and she tries to keep the little two calm. But the Supervillain shows up again, and everything starts to explode. Then Billy and Freddy are arguing and he finally admits to everyone that they’re his family now. She smiles at her twin as he heads into battle, holding back the little kids from chasing him while Freddy stares at him in shock.

For a moment she thinks they’ve won. That they’re safe now. Then the Seven Deadly Sins show up again, and they’re running again. She hears Freddy scream, then Pedro, and Darla’s hand is ripped from her own. She turns around just in time to see Eugene grabbed as each of her siblings ripped away from her by the fight. And suddenly she’s alone at a carnival, without even Billy beside her, and everything is happening too quickly for her to think at all.

She finds him just in time to see him shoved under the water, and freezes in shock. She doesn’t know if he can survive this, and it doesn’t seem like he can transform under water. She has to do something, anything to help her brother, she just doesn’t know what. And then she spots the air guns in front of her. It’s a quick mental calculation to aim and the metal bb is flying directly at the glowing eye. Only to be caught at the last second. She stares hopelessly as she lowers the gun, willing her brother to get up. She can feel one of the Sins appearing behind her to grab her, but she can’t bring herself to care if Billy doesn’t pull his head out of the water.

She barely sees him do so, instantly transforming, as she’s yanked away. Then the Sins are going to kill Darla, and Billy is kneeling before the villain. And suddenly he’s blasting the man back with the staff. Then they all have powers, and everything starts to get a whole lot easier.

Her mind becomes lost in the fight, everyone of her senses sharper, her thoughts and movements faster. She can almost feel her opponents' next movements before they make them, and somehow knows exactly how to block against them. She can feel a buzzing inside her legs, a lightness in her bones, a weight in her muscles, and electricity in her veins. She’s aware that she can access all of these powers if she can manage to harness them, as her siblings do while fighting around her. She worries for them as always, and for her twin leading off the main villain as they battle. But she instinctively knows they can all handle it. Only Billy may have managed to harness all of their powers, but somehow she knows they all share the same ones.

When the monsters she fights begin to turn to dust, sucked back into the orb, she takes to the air with ease. Knowing they’ve won she can’t help but revel in the feel of flying by her own power, without the terror for her siblings that filled her earlier flight. This whole superhero thing is by far the last thing she expected to happen by reuniting with her twin. And she’s most definitely ready to punch him for his ‘almost becoming a supervillain’ prank just as the battle ends. But as they stand in a ruined carnival, the baddies all gone and the crowd cheering for them, she can’t imagine anything better.

They head back to the cave temple place as soon as the crowds begin to disperse and put the evil glowy orb thing back. And then her and Billy and Freddy are all freaking out and laughing about having a lair while their older and younger brothers both roll their eyes and silently agree with small smiles. Darla seeing all the fourteen year olds’ excitement joins in before voicing her confusion, and the three of them are silent for a moment staring at her before they burst into renewed laughter. Clutching her stomach from how hard she’s laughing, and seeing her two closest brothers doubled over in laughter, even Pedro and Eugene joining in with their own chuckles as their baby sister stands there in confusion, she amends her earlier statement. This right here, with all five of her siblings, all laughing together, is exactly what she hoped for.


	18. Superman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I miscounted and this will not be the last chapter, but the second last instead. Enjoy!

School is an absolute disaster the day after everything happens. No one is able to pay attention to anything. Every conversation is about the heroes. The students are all discussing hero names and hypothesizing the origin of the heroes. It’s almost a relief to Mary when her teachers get annoyed with the class and just give up trying to teach. The teenage heroine is so tired that she doesn’t think she could focus even if her family wasn’t the topic of discussion.

When her lunch period rolls around, Mary is convinced that if she stays in her normal form for another minute she’ll fall over unconscious. Instead of heading to the cafeteria she transforms and flies away. The exhaustion still exists in her hero form, but more as an annoyance than a looming collapse. She does a lazy patrol of the area as she flies, ultimately just wanting to clear her head of the swirling thoughts that plagued her all morning.

She sees Billy and Freddy join her in the air after several minutes, and seeing as she’s ditching school too she can’t bring herself to lecture her brothers. The three of them fly around for hours stopping petty crimes and chasing each other laughingly through the air. After stopping a robbery together she ends up on the roof of a skyscraper with her twin, simply sitting and looking out at the city. Freddy flies in the distance twirling and flipping with glee. So when another blue clad hero flies over to them, the pair of twins almost fall off the roof.

“Um… Uh… Hi Mr. Superman Sir…”

Mary has to facepalm at Billy’s antics, and instead greets the older hero with a smile. “Sorry, he’s just shocked to meet you.”

“Oh that’s alright. I’m just hoping I’m not disturbing a date or anything.” At the Man Of Steel's words she gags, her brother reacting similarly. “I’m sorry, I just assumed by the way you were snuggled up here…”

“Ugh, no. Ick. Just no.”

“No, no, oh gosh no.”

“We’re twins.” At their simultaneous explanation a look of understanding crosses his face and he nods.

“Understood. May I join you? There are some matters we need to discuss.”

The twins share a wide eyed look and nod. “Do you want one of us to get the rest of our team?”

“No. That’s not necessary. Your one friend seemed quite happy patrolling, and there’s no need to pull the rest of your team away from their civilian lives. I know the struggle of balancing hero work and a personal life. What I don’t know is anything about you. What your powers or intentions are.”

“I mean, we’re not really sure what all powers we have…”

“We have enhanced intellect to nigh omniscience, superhuman strength, speed, and stamina, invulnerability, and increased healing, electrokenisis, and flight.” The older hero nods impressed. Billy stares at her in shock and confusion. “All of us have the same powers, we just excel at different aspects of it. Mine being the intelligence.”

“What?”

She stares at her twin in bewilderment. “The acronym.” His expression is blank. She groans and points to herself. “Wisdom. P has Strength.” She points to him “Courage. E got Power.” Gesturing at Freddy off in the distance “Stamina. And baby is Speed. Don’t you pay attention?”

Her brother looks down with a cringe and a half smile. Superman let’s out a low whistle. “Impressive. And have you always had these powers?”

The two children shrug, fidgeting a little awkwardly as Billy speaks. “No. They’re pretty new. I’ve only had them for a few weeks, and everyone else got them mid battle last night.”

At Billy’s words the man turns towards her in shock. “Wait. You got your powers mid battle?”

She shrugs again, feeling like the older hero is staring straight into her soul. “Well, yeah. Most of us didn’t even know about this idiot’s powers until right before it started. I mean you’d think that your twin would be one of the first people you tell about becoming a superhero, but apparently you tell two of your other siblings first and let your twin figure it out on their own.”

“If you’ve only been a team less than a day, how are you sure you can trust everyone?”

“We’re all family. Who better to trust at your back than your siblings?”

“Fair enough. What do you intend to do with your powers now that that you won that battle last night?”

“We don’t really know. We just wanted to keep our family safe.”

“Yeah, we haven’t really had the chance to talk about it, but we’re gonna try to help.”

The hero rises into the air. “That’s all I ask. If you ever need assistance the Justice League will be there for you. And even if it’s not to that scale, I’m always happy to help.”

Mary looks at Billy with a grin, and a motion toward their school. He grins back at her mischievously. “Well actually, there is one thing you can do…”

After the Man Of Steel flies away they sit there in silence for another moment. “Wait. Did we really just meet Superman? And invite him to lunch at our school?”

“Yep. Freddy’s gonna have a heart attack.”


	19. Family

Billy is the one to initiate the dinner prayer that night and she beams widely at him from her place at the opposite corner of the table. He refers to everyone as his family and tells them that he’s home. Mama definitely is crying in happiness at the statement. Mary somehow manages to grin even more as she meets her twins’ eyes. He gets it now, he finally understands what she’s been trying to tell him every serious conversation they’ve had since he got here.

That evening she climbs up to his bunk and flops onto it, half landing on him as she knocks his textbook away. “Budge over little brother.”

“Five minutes. You are five minutes older. If Eugene is to be believed.” Despite his protests he does as she asks.

She sticks her tongue out at him and settles in next to him. “He showed me our birth records this afternoon. I am most definitely older than you. I’m everyone’s big sister except Pedro’s.”

He leans into her and rests his head on her shoulder. “Even though he’s a year older than us I’m pretty sure you’re still the big sister even to him.” A giggle escapes at his statement and she leans her head against his. He’s hesitant when he speaks again. “Especially with you going away to university in California next fall, while the rest of us are still here and going to FCS.”

“I don’t think I’ll go. Not yet at least.”

He sits up to look her in the eyes. “What? Why? You’ve worked so hard to get in.”

She rolls her eyes and shoves him back down. “We’ve already had this conversation. I don’t want to leave our family. Especially now that you’re finally here. And truthfully I don’t think I could handle living on my own so far from home. We’re only fourteen, I can take online classes for a few years before I go if I’m bored. University can wait, I want to enjoy my last few years as a kid with all of you guys. Besides, a superhero can’t abandon her team or her city, so I guess you’re stuck with me forever!”

“Despite our physical separation, I’ve been stuck with you since before we were born. I’m so stuck with you that we don’t even get our own super suit colors!”

She laughs at his comments and grins at him. “And don’t you dare forget it! But yeah the suit thing is kinda funny.”

And the two of them sit in his bed chatting about anything and everything, and just holding each other for hours. They draw Freddy into the conversation for a while when he comes in for bed. All three of them discussing their powers and lair for several minutes before Freddy calls it a night. The two of them merely returning his goodnight wishes as he climbs into his lower bunk. She’s starting to fall asleep on Billy when Mama’s voice interrupts them.

“Twins! Mis gemelos! It’s lights out time queridos! That means you both need to be in your own rooms, in your beds, and trying to sleep; as opposed to keeping Freddy up. You all have school in the morning!”

The two of them laugh together at Mama’s words, as they’re punctuated by Freddy’s snores. With another quick hug she hops down and runs to her and Darla’s room. Eager to short circuit their brother’s brain at lunch the next day and ready for whatever adventure comes for their family next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is the final chapter! This fic was so fun to write, and you guys are great! I hope you enjoyed!


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